Got Outsourcers? Get Deep and Broad IT Talent In-house, Too.
If your IT strategy includes outsourcing contracts, make sure you’ve got a few good IT pros on staff to help manage them.
Like so many large companies, General Motors outsources a fair share of its IT operations. In fact, the automaker—which as you all know was bailed out and underwent a major bankruptcy restructuring earlier this year—currently has only 1,500 IT employees and outsources 90% of its IT work to a variety of providers, according to this recent article in InformationWeek. The CIO, Terry Kline, on the job since October, plans on keeping GM’s outsourcing strategy intact, but he told InformationWeek he’s looking to hire a few good IT men and women. Their requisite skills? About 15 years’ experience that covers several IT disciplines, including code development, server, network and systems management, the ability to architect systems and networks, and fundamental database management. Kline’s reasoning is that it’s this broad and deep skill set that will give IT workers the chops to manage outsourced IT operations.
I couldn’t agree more.
Time and time again I’ve heard that one of the most critical factors to a successful outsourcing gig is solid, on-going management of that gig. Management is needed well before a contract is signed, is particularly relevant during the transition time when work that had previously been done in-house is now being handed over to someone else, and is essential well after the ink has dried on the contract.
Your IT shop needs people that are well-versed in a variety of skills so they know and understand all the intricacies of IT operations. That way, if a system slows to a crawl and its head starts spinning around and around, and the outsourcing company that’s hosting the errant server points a finger at your in-house developers, you’ll have someone who can speak the language to help uncover the problem and exorcise the trouble.
Moreover, that experienced and well-versed IT manager will be able to smooth over any rifts caused by the finger-pointing, and work with the outsourcer in ways that are most beneficial to your company.
Without such tech-savvy and practiced managers on board, you run risks. You could end up at the mercy of your outsourcer, who should but may not have your best interests at heart. I’m not suggesting that outsourcers are evil; I’m merely saying that when problems arise, most times it’s the other guy’s fault.
Moreover, IT veterans whose skills span a variety of disciplines are able to see the bigger picture and better understand how outsourcing various functions will and do impact your other business processes. They are likely able to recognize and plan for the impact a new SaaS application will have on the back-end systems mission-critical to your business. And they’ll also be capable of working with your in-house application developers who made need to do things differently now that the data center is in someone else’s hands, so to speak.
At first blush, it may seem difficult to find the individual that’s talented, experienced, and well-rounded enough to fill such shoes. It takes an individual that’s got roots in technical expertise but has the reach of a strategic thinker that works well both in and out of the box. But there are quite a few IT workers out there who are regularly and
Previous Post: If H-1B Petitions Are Rising, Will More Foreign Techies Arrive?Next Post: Europe Overtakes North America in Outsourcing Games
What is Tech Briefcase?
TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this. Learn more
Bookmark content
Speed up your research efforts with content across the web.
Search and Store
Find the white papers you need. Create folders for any topic.
View Anywhere
Open your briefcase on your iPhone, tablet or desktop. Share with colleagues.
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
